Sermon Title: Gateway’s Big Rocks
Speaker: Matt Heft
Main Passage: Luke 2:52
Date: 1/2/2022
You can watch the sermon here.
You can find the sermon notes here.
Good morning, my name is Matt Heft. I’m an elder here at Gateway. I would like to welcome you this morning whether you’re here in the Worship Center at County Road 9, worshipping at North Main, or even if you’re still in the midst of holiday travel, but made it a point to connect with your Gateway family online. You can’t tell me that after spending some time with your biological families, we don’t start to look kind of normal.
As some of you know, my family and I have moved around several times with my job. We’ve lived in and out of Findlay on three different occasions, in Illinois, in Indiana, and twice in Kentucky. Each location had a different feel, and for a while, we gained a kid at every new house. One neat experience was being able to immerse ourselves in a different church at each new home. At our church in Northern Kentucky, you know “Florence Y’all”, our church always started the year with a sermon on our church’s big rocks. I don’t know if it was just my personality, but I always looked forward to that sermon as we started the year. We would review our church’s big rocks and the pastor would provide some tangible ways we could grow in each of those areas.
A few years back, I was listening to their podcast and was reminded of how much I enjoyed the beginning of the year Big Rocks sermon. Gateway has similar big rocks. We generally call it our discipleship process. So a few years ago, I said something to Pastor Josh about this sermon and how I thought he should preach a sermon on Gateway’s big rocks at the beginning of the next year. The next year, I heard the sermon from Northern Kentucky again and so of course, I said, Pastor Josh, you should preach a sermon on Gateway’s big rocks to start off the year. And then the thought popped into my mind again and I said, Pastor Josh, you should preach a sermon at the start of the year about Gateway’s Big Rocks.
This morning, I would like to share with you a sermon on Gateway’s big rocks.
In 2022, when someone other than Pastor Josh is preaching, we will be covering our favorite verses. I have to admit, I find coming up with a favorite verse to be extremely challenging…but I can come up with a verse that would make my top 500. At the beginning of each year I try to spend some time thinking through my life and what areas I need to grow in. A verse that I’ve used as a starting point to keep in mind as I go through this effort is Luke 2:52. You’ll recall that the beginning of Luke Chapter 2 is the Christmas story that we talk about so often this time of year. You know, Jesus is born, the shepherds come, the baby Jesus is met by Simeon and Anna, and then his parents lose him at the Temple when he’s 12 years old. With one verse, we fast forward from pre-teen Jesus to when he was 30 years old and his recorded earthly ministry began.
Here’s what it says in Luke 2:52 – “And Jesus increased in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and man.”
Let’s read that verse again. “And Jesus increased in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and man.” Wisdom, stature, and favor with God and man. Now I always find it best to fend off the short jokes by attacking them head on. No, when setting my goals, I did not overlook the word stature. I will have you know that another translation for that word is maturity. But each year, I spend some time pondering if I have grown and how I have grown in wisdom; if I have grown and how I have grown in maturity; and if I have grown and how I have grown in my relationship with God and other people. And then spend some time thinking about how I want to grow in the year ahead.
This year, I want to challenge you to go through a similar exercise using Gateway’s discipleship process or big rocks from our Mission and Vision statements.
I’m sure that you’re all very familiar with Gateway’s Mission statement. “Gateway Church exists to connect people to Jesus Christ and to one another”. We say it every week during the welcome and announcements. But you may not be as familiar with Gateway’s vision statement, which is built around our discipleship process, or at least for the purposes of this sermon, I’m going to call that our big rocks. At the beginning of each Session meeting (that’s when our elders meet), we start off with prayer and then we read through the vision and mission statements and reflect on how we are doing as a church. Follow along while I read them.
Our Mission is to connect people to Jesus Christ and one another
Our Vision…to be a church that connects people to Jesus Christ and to one another, we aim to:
It is so tempting to just jump into a list of ideas of how we can grow in Worship, Connecting with Others, Serving, and Going. Our culture seems to reward us far more for doing, instead of just being. But this morning, and I hope you see this all the time at Gateway, we start with what someone else has already done for us. Something we could never do ourselves. Many of you already know this, but perhaps you need a refresher.
We are sinners, every single one of us. We have turned away from God and we would continue to do that if it weren’t for the fact that God sent his own son to die for us. In fact, in I John 4:9, it says, “This is how God showed his love among us He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him.” You see, it is only through Jesus that true life can begin. Many in this room have accepted this truth and you have placed your trust in Jesus. But then, maybe it’s right away, maybe it’s a few years down the road, we go back to our way of doing things with little regard for what God has done for us through Jesus. We treat our salvation as if it happened back then, but it has little bearing on us now. That’s not at all what our verse in I John says. That verse tells that God sent Jesus into the world that we might live through him. He didn’t just bring me back to life. He brought me back to life and he sustains my life every day.
Gateway’s first big rock, and I would argue is the biggest of the big rocks, is The Gospel. Connecting people with Jesus Christ is fundamental to who we are as a church.
If we’re not careful, we’ll see some of the other things that I’m going to talk about this morning as a way to please God or make him happy with us. If you have placed your trust in Jesus Christ, he is already pleased with you. You can do no more than what Jesus has already done. Believe on him and rest in him.
But let’s not overlook the correct order of things as we see in Ephesians 2:8-10 For it is by graceyou have been saved, through faith – and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God – not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.
Here's my big concern as I move forward with this sermon. I’m a little nervous that you’re going to hear do, do, do. So I want to clearly state up front. I want you to be connected to Jesus Christ and through this being, I want to challenge how you’re living.
Again, first big rock, the Gospel.
Before I get into any specific statement from our vision, I need to address two disciplines that will run through each Vision statement. Those two disciplines are spending time in the Word and Prayer. These will provide a foundation for us as we navigate through our Christian lives. You know what, this actually reminds me of a song we used to sing in Sunday School growing up. “Read your Bible, pray every day, pray every day, pray every day, read your Bible, pray every day and you’ll grow, grow, grow.”
And of course, when we sang this song, we would start squatted down real low and each time we said the word grow, we would grow ourselves a couple inches until we were standing up as tall as possible.
Now of course, there is a second verse to that song, it went like this, “neglect your Bible, forget to pray, forget to pray, forget to pray, neglect your Bible, forget to pray and you’ll shrink, shrink, shrink.” With each repetition of the word shrink, we would drop down a few more inches until we were flat on our bellies pushing ourselves into the floor.
There’s a reason Shaun and Jon won’t let me lead worship. But you get the point. Many of us are living depleted, powerless Christian lives, we’re failing to grow, and likely feel like we’re shrinking. A big reason for that is likely due to a lack of spending time in His Word and prayer.
Let me explain the card you have in front of you and what I’m asking from you in today’s sermon. I’m asking that you would seek out areas that God would want you to grow in in the coming year. For you, perhaps it’s growth in one particular big rock, for someone else, it may be growth with each Big Rock, so you just pick one or two items from each category. Maybe you decide that none of these suggestions work for you so you change and adapt them to challenge yourself to grow in 2022.
Back to the Bible and Prayer ideas.
Ok, now that we’ve laid the foundation of the Gospel, the Bible, and prayer, let’s take a look at the first step in Gateway’s discipleship process, worship.
Worship in a way that is Gospel-centered, contextual, and done with excellence. And we have a verse that would also fit well here and support Worship as one of our big rocks. Let’s look at Hebrews 10:24-25.
And let us consider how to spur one another on toward love and good deeds. Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another -and all the more as you see the Day approaching.
Go ahead and put the entire vision statement back up on the screen and just highlight this first one. See, if we’re not careful we can look at the second, third, and fourth bullets and we can easily see that we have some personal responsibility. However, this first one, worship, can almost read as if it’s up to someone else. Pastor Josh and others that preach are responsible for keeping everything Gospel-Centered. Worship music should be contextual…that means Shaun and Jon should play the songs that I like, right? And done with excellence. The preaching should be excellent, the worship music should be excellent, and even the announcements should be done with excellence. Do you see what’s missing with this mindset? You. We put the burden on other people, but if we’re not careful, we think that our only responsibility with this first step in the discipleship process is to show up. No preparation, no requirements once we’re here, just show up. That’s certainly not what the passage from Hebrews says to us. How can we stir one another up to love and good works, or encourage each other, if we’re in and out before we even have a chance to talk to someone.
So, if I want you to do more than just show up for worship, what would I challenge you to do? Well first, as we just went over, I want you to prepare for this service all week long by spending daily time in Bible reading and prayer. But here are some additional, tangible, and practical ways that you can do that.
The next big rock in Gateway’s discipleship process is Connect. Again, from our Vision statement, we say that we want to Connect through Word-based application and caring for one another. The major way we define this is through our Life Groups.
I want to look at some verses from 2 Peter chapter 1. Turn with me there in your Bibles, 3“His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness.” And where does that knowledge come from? From the Bible. Picking up in verse 5, “For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, love. For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.” The attributes listed in these verses are learned from the Bible, but they are driven deep into our lives as we grow in close proximity to others. Life Groups provide us with that opportunity.
So, yes, this is the section where I challenge you to join a Life Group, whether it's an adult group or our Sunday night Life Groups for those in Middle School and High School. But, it’s January 2…you here this morning aren’t your average church attendee. You’re probably already in a Life Group and maybe even leading one. How would I challenge someone that is already in a Life Group?
Gateway’s third step in the discipleship process is Serve. Serve the people in our church family.
In I Corinthians and in Ephesians 4, we are encouraged to think of the church as a body with many parts. Have you ever noticed that Ephesians 4:12-13 tells us why? “to prepare God’s people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.”
One of the main ways that we challenge members to serve is on Sunday mornings. Don’t hear what I’m not saying, yes, you can serve your family and neighbors throughout the week and I hope you do. By serving the Gateway church family on Sunday mornings, it gives us the opportunity to serve this family we should be building up. If you are well-along in your faith, you serve as an example to younger believers. If you are newer in your faith, serving on Sunday mornings will provide the training wheels to serve beyond these walls.
Now, I know, it can be somewhat intimidating to begin to serve in any ministry area. Do you know what I think would be the most intimidating? That sound board back there…or…maybe the nursery…but I know some of you would thrive in those roles. What’s holding you back?
Let me share a quick story with you. (Hurricanes’ emergency goalie David Ayres beats Maple Leafs, NBC Sports Adam Gretz, February 22, 2020.) It was late February in 2020 before things started to shutdown from COVID. The Carolina Hurricanes, a professional hockey team in the NHL traveled to Canada to play the Toronto Maple Leafs. Halfway through the second period of the game, the Carolina Hurricanes goalie was injured. This goalie was already the backup goalie, because the other one had been injured a couple days before. This left Carolina with no goalie. They had no other goalies with them on the trip. In any other sport, it seems like someone else on the team would have to suit up and fill the missing role. Evidently that’s not the case in hockey. Instead, the Zamboni driver for the Toronto Maple Leafs was tapped to play as the emergency goalie for the Carolina Hurricanes. The first two shots on goal got past him, but then he completely stopped Toronto from scoring in the third period, leading to a Carolina Hurricanes 6 to 3 victory.
I know some of you are concerned about how well you might do in any given serving context. It can be scary to jump into something new. I don’t think I need to repeat this a bunch, because I think you’ll get my point. When it comes to serving at Gateway, we don’t always need a professional goalie. A Zamboni driver with a big heart will do just fine.
So what are some ways that you can grow in the area of Serving in 2022? I’m glad you asked.
Gateway’s final step in the discipleship process is Go. We want to be a church that “Goes into the world by equipping, partnering with, and sending members to proclaim the Good News of Jesus Christ.” In John 4:35, it says, “I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest.” Have you ever seen a field that is white for harvest? The sun will hit it just right and there’s no question that that wheat is ready to be harvested. Jesus is telling his disciples to look up because that’s what the world looks like right now. It is white for harvest, it is ready, it is time.
At Gateway, we want you to be growing in harvesting. Here are some practical ways to do that.
I appreciate you taking this journey with me today to talk about Gateway’s big rocks, the Gospel, the Bible, Prayer, Worship, Connect, Serve, and Go. I hope you’ll spend some time today reflecting on what God is calling us each to do in 2022.
Let me close us in prayer.
Dear God, thank you for a new year and a new opportunity to serve you. We know that 2022 will come with ups and downs, just like in prior years, but we pray that we would grow closer to you, so that we see each event of this year through a different lens. Help us to grow in holiness as we strive to look more and more like Jesus.
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